The Dog Health Blog

Sunday, May 10, 2009

Just want to take this opportunity to wish all mothers a Very Happy Mother's Day.

If You Want To Get a Last Minute Mothers Day Gift or if can't seem to think of a gift to get her, I found a great site where you can get one and it seems to be constantly updated - click on this link -

Thursday, August 7, 2008

Even in these dog days of summer, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and thecity’s health commissioner, Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, traveled to aBrooklyn park on Monday to spread a piece of welcoming news among dogowners: They can now license their pets online.

Dog licensing is a legal requirement and violators can face fines ofat least $200. But the mayor said that only 20 percent of the estimated500,000 dogs that live in New York City are believed to be licensed,even though licenses are a requirement for dogs that frequent cityparks. One of the goals of the new system, he explained, is toencourage more people to license their dogs.

“Licensing is not just a good idea — it’s actually the law,” Mr.Bloomberg, who has two Labrador puppies in his Upper East Side mansionnamed Bonnie and Clyde, said at the event, held at Hillside Dog Park inBrooklyn Heights. (The mayor noted that sometimes, his dogs get moreattention at home than he does.)

The new online system shortens the wait time for new licenses andrenewals to 10 to 14 days, as opposed to the several weeks that itoften takes for mailed-in applications. The fee for first-time doglicenses is $11.50. Renewals cost $8.50 if the dog has been spayed orneutered or $11.50 if it has not.

Dr. Frieden said that although more than 100,000 dogs are licensedeach year in the city, “we hope to see that number increasesubstantially.” “And having it available online, with a few clicks,” hesaid, “really means there’s no excuse not to have your dog licensed.”

Mr. Bloomberg called the Web site“a one-stop shop for dog owners.” In addition to applying for licenses,owners can also request for a replacement of a lost licensing tag orcertificate and create a profile of their pet, with information likeits name, dominant color and breed, and month and year of birth.

As in paper applications, owners must enter their personalinformation, including their address, which could help reunite themwith their dogs in case of separation.

Charlene Pedrolie, executive director of New York City Animal Care and Control,the largest animal rescue and adoption agency in the Northeast, saidthat dog licensing “has played a key role in reuniting lost dog withtheir families.” In the past fiscal year alone, the agency was able toreunite 1,100 dogs with their owners; of those, 500 were licensed,which enabled the agency to find their owners within 24 hours, Ms.Pedrolie said.

Saturday, July 26, 2008

A:Almost any mammal will get sick when his diet is suddenly changed, even when you are changing to a better diet. It works the same in humans.

Put your dog back on the dang kibble, but give him a raw egg-including the shell-with it. This will be a great step forward. Over a period of about a month, gradually add chicken necks to the kibble and egg mixture. Make sure the chicken necks still have the skin on them. They're actually harder to find than you might think: The butcher thinks he is doing you a favor by removing the skin. Just call your butcher ahead of time and let him know what you want-you'll be saving him work, so, odds are, he'll be happy to oblige.

After a few weeks on this mixture, start adding chicken liver as you decrease the kibble. I use kibble only as filler on top, since dogs do like the crunch. And don't forget the raw pork or beef joint two or three times a week.

I often substitute raw hamburger for the liver in my dog's diet. Buy the cheapest priced hamburger because, ironically, it is the most nutritious; it contains the most fat (YOU should eat it too).

My dog, Silky, has eaten this diet since she was six weeks old. Six months later, she was all bone and muscle and is covered with the most beautiful coat I have ever seen.

Monday, March 24, 2008

Hold onto your leash. Pet supply mega-chains are peddling over-priced pseudo-foods that are responsible for the malnourishment of our hounds on a massive scale. Not only that, they're intentionally steering dog owners AWAY from the natural raw foods canines really need to stay as healthy as they can be.

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

You've heard it said before that pets resemble their owners. That's true in more ways than one. The diseases they get are all too familiar, to heart disease, cancer, arthritis. The rise in human diseases among pets is no great mystery. They're getting sick for the same reasons humans are: too much cooked, processed food. The difference is that you have a choice; they don't.

And if they're not getting adequate nutrition through their diets, you should at least considering investing in supplements.

You know that I've long defended multivitamins against arbitrary and alarmist attacks by the media and medical communities. Not too long ago, there was a study that made the absurd suggestion that daily multivitamin use could be harmful and even deadly. But I was here to let you know that while I may not agree that the multivitamins that are commonly available are as good as they claim to be, they certainly aren't going to kill you.

But today's item is about the benefits of multivitamin and supplement use, not the nonexistent dangers. And it comes to us from the veterinary community. Even pets at an advanced age can benefit greatly from pet supplements.

Take Sierra, for example. Sierra the cat wasn't doing so well. She couldn't jump on the counter. She didn't want to play. She seemed to be in pain. But since she's started taking vitamins, this 13-year-old feline is frisky as ever. She's jumping up on the counter. She's chasing balls of yarn. In short, she's got her old life back. In Sierra's case, the improvement in quality of life was significant after the introduction of a multivitamin supplement.

The pet supplement industry is growing because the results have been good for pets taking supplements. In the case of Sierra, the multivitamins she took included glucosamine and chondroitin, both of which are enormously beneficial for joint ailments. Glucosamine is a key component of joint cartilage, and is commonly used for treatment of osteoarthritis, along with chondroitin. Anyone familiar with dietary supplements knows of these two elements and is aware that they're often combined. What you may not know is that there's been a fair degree of controversy over their actual effectiveness in the treatment of humans with joint pain - in spite of the many cases of positive results in several clinical trials.

That stink you smell is Big Pharma.

Is it any wonder that there are doubts about the effectiveness of glucosamine and chondroitin? After all - these are natural elements that needn't be formulated or created by labs - the source is the exoskeletons of crustaceans, arthropods, and fungi. And as many bows as Big Pharma likes to take, there's no way they can be credited for the existence of lobsters or mushrooms (though it wouldn't surprise me if the buggers tried!). And according to vets, these supplements are working like gangbusters for older cats and dogs that have the same kinds of degenerative joint issues that humans have.

The vet community was wary of multivitamins and supplements at first. Their benefits weren't generally taught in veterinary schools, and there weren't many on the market. But it's hard to argue with results. (And even the smartest pooch hasn't figured out the placebo effect.) Veterinarian Dr. Tim Montague was one of those unconvinced about the benefits of pet supplements. Then he tried them on his Golden Retriever Ayla, who was suffering from an arthritic shoulder.

"She could barely make it up the stairs, but with within a week after the supplement, she was running and catching Frisbees in the yard. That sold me," Montague said.

Now don't go slipping your dog or cat one of your own supplements with their breakfast, since the effect of many human supplements are untested on pets and the dosages can be very different. In fact, vets claim that many of the supplements actually made for pets are of dubious quality, and of a lower standard than the quality of supplements for people. Knowing what I know about the so-called "quality" of human supplements, that's a frightening thought.

The lesson here is that the right vitamins can be a boon to the health and quality of life for people and their pets. But if you're going to take them - or give them - be sure to get them fully "vetted" out by your doctor or vet.

A microorganism a day keeps the doctor away

The supplement trend in this country is just getting started. The mega corporation Proctor and Gamble, producers of all manner of package goods, from detergents to dog food, is testing Align, a probiotic supplement.

Probiotics are dietary supplements that contain beneficial bacteria. And they can help assist the body in combating gastrointestinal infections by helping re-establish what are known as "gut flora" - the microorganisms that live in your digestive tract. Studies show that probiotics can help do all kinds of wonderful things like strengthen the immune system, and fight-off allergies and other immune diseases.

The target for this product is suffers of gastrointestinal disorders. In fact, P&G is late to the party on probiotics. There are already yogurts and drinks containing probiotics, and Kraft has recently launched a line of cheeses that are probiotic.

Probiotics can be extremely beneficial, and I don't think adding them to food is a bad thing - as long as the companies are telling you it's there (it's your right to know what you're ingesting, after all). But if you've got some tummy issues, probiotics are something that you should look into and perhaps mix into your diet. It seems that's going to get easier and easier in the coming years.

Monday, January 7, 2008

Sunday, December 23, 2007

When Lane Nemeth, who founded Discovery Toys in 1978 and sold the company to Avon two decades later, decided to start a pet products company a few years ago, one of the first things she did was to look for regulations about how to manufacture pet toys safely.

She could not find any.

“It was totally shocking,” said Ms. Nemeth, whose company, Petlane, sells items like doggie tiaras and squirrel-shaped chew toys. “I was stunned because I had come from such a highly regulated industry to one that has no regulations.”

After the pet food contamination this year, which is believed to have caused the deaths of at least 300 dogs and cats, and a spate of children’s toy recalls, which highlighted the problem of lead in products from China, pet owners have been stepping forward to ask: How safe are pet toys?